Strategic Alliance Magazine Q3 2017 - 42

R E P U TAT I O N M AT T E R S

identity, guideposts, business practices, and customer service priorities. The objective was to set a new standard of
practice, share it across the industry, and ensure consistency of approach across Lilly alliance managers. Being seen
as a trusted, open source of information would set Lilly
apart in terms of reputation and help forge a community of
professionals (at Lilly and other companies) who could
bring standardization to the practice of alliance management. To this end, OAM started by clearly defining and
documenting guideposts, including the mission, vision,
and other key concepts that would guide the group's work.
A mission statement describes the present purpose of
an organization, including its reason for existing and
benefits. Here is OAM's mission:
OAM is an internal consulting organization
that maximizes the value of partnered assets
throughout the product life cycle by
mitigating business risk, human risk, and
legal uncertainties and reducing alliance
inefficiencies. OAM is also accountable for the
fundamental services necessary to keep
an alliance operational and productive.
OAM staff serves as ombudsmen, representing
the interests of the alliance rather than one
particular company.
A vision statement, on the other hand, describes what
the organization will look like in the future. OAM's
vision statement reads:
OAM aspires to be innovators in the practice
of alliance management and to expand its
client base into non-traditional spaces.
Additional key concepts have been developed in alignment with the core values of our company: respect for
people, integrity, and excellence. These key concepts include how alliance managers do the work and also
identify the work's ultimate goals. Lilly's alliance managers are measured on their ability to demonstrate
vision, judgment, and influence. OAM also clearly defined its core capabilities, products, and services (see
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STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q3 * 2017

Figure 1) and listed the attributes of successful alliance
managers (see Figure 2).
To summarize, what was developed was a series of guideposts for the department and the people who staff it:
Lilly's OAM will:

n Run itself as a consulting firm
n Maximize value creation
n Own and solve complex, high-risk problems
impacting the alliance to reduce inefficiencies in
alliances

n Focus on mitigating business and human risks as
well as legal uncertainties
Lilly alliance managers will be:

n Ombudsmen who represent the interests of the
alliance

n Measured on their ability to demonstrate vision,
judgment, and influence

n Leading-edge thought leaders in the art and
science of alliance management who share our
knowledge through publication and teaching

BUILD: Create an Action Plan
After deliberately defining its guideposts, OAM turned to
the task of leveraging them to proactively and consistently
manage its reputation. We created an action plan to ensure
that its internal business partners had a thorough understanding and appreciation for alliance management and
the benefits of the department's work. All of this also contributed to building OAM's reputation externally.

Define Target Audiences: First, we identified key
stakeholders and target audiences, both internal and external. The internal list included senior leadership,
business unit leadership, alliance champions, governance committee members, local key influencers, and
up-and-coming business leaders. The external audience
list included senior leadership of current and potential
partner companies as well as alliance management professionals across industries.
Develop Key Messages:

Then we completed an
exercise to determine what each audience should

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Strategic Alliance Magazine Q3 2017